Re: 21 students killed at VA Tech

death total is now up to 33, including the gunman. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families, with the exception of the gunman, who can rot in hell as far as i am concerned. What a terrible tragedy.

Re: 21 students killed at VA Tech

What I cannot believe is that the killer appears to have killed the poor souls in the dorm, then returned two hours later. Why wasn't the campus locked down?

(CNN) -- Officials at Virginia Tech said Monday that they thought the situation was under control during the hours between two shootings that claimed 33 lives.

"We concluded first that the incident in Ambler Johnston [dormitory] was domestic in nature. In fact we had some reason to think the shooter had left campus," Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said during a late-afternoon news conference.

Police in Blacksburg, Virginia, were alerted to the shootings at around 7:15 a.m. ET, when they were notified in a 911 call that there were several victims in a dormitory, Steger said.

At about 9:15 a.m., more than 30 shots were reported in nearby Norris Hall, he said.

One student told CNN that he was upset with the way the university notified students about the shooting.

"I'll say on the record I'm outraged that someone died in a shooting in a dorm at 7 in the morning. The first e-mail about it, no mention of locking down campus, no mention of canceled classes, they just mention they're investigating a shooting a few hours later at 9:26," said student Jason Piatt.

"Meanwhile, while they sent out that e-mail, [more] people got killed."

According to The Associated Press, the e-mail read:

"A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating. The university community is urged to be cautious and are asked to contact Virginia Tech Police if you observe anything suspicious or with information on the case. Contact Virginia Tech Police at 231-641. Stay attuned to the www.vt.edu. We will post as soon as we have more information."

Other students complained about the timing of warnings.

"We were kept in the dark a lot about exactly what was going on," Andrew Capers Thompson, a 22-year-old graduate student from Walhalla, South Carolina, told the AP.

Steger defended the university's reaction to the first shooting.

Steger said that soon after the dorm shooting the university used a telephone alert system to notify resident assistants of the tragedy and sent out e-mails to help notify the students who lived on- and off-campus. He also said warning sirens went off.

Officials said 9,000 of Virginia Tech's 26,000 students live in residence halls.

Steger said the university will review how it reacted to Monday's events.

"But it's one of these things that no one anticipated and you have to remember that you can only make the decision based on the information that you know at that moment in time," he said. "And you don't have hours to reflect on it, you have to take immediate action."

The school's lockdown system worked very well,Steger said. Students were cooperative and very few people were out after the lockdown, he said.

Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said his office will investigate to see if the shootings were related to two bomb threats that were called in recently.

In the first, on April 3, university officials closed down Torgersen Hall and a main gateway to the campus after a written note threatened the 100,000-square-foot building, according to the Roanoke Times.

The school canceled classes in the building and sent bomb-sniffing dogs in to check it out. No device was found.

The second incident took place Friday, according to WTVR in Richmond, which reported that a bomb threat forced closures of Torgersen, Durham and Whittimore halls. The buildings were closed over the weekend and reopened only in time for classes Monday morning, according to the New River Valley Times.

The university has offered a $5,000 reward for information about the bomb threats.

"We're looking into that to see if they are or are not connected," he said. "It's certainly a possibility we're exploring. "

Re: 21 students killed at VA Tech

From what I heard, the killer went to his girlfriend's room early in the morning. She was not there. He questioned the roommate and then shot her, and then shot a resident advisor that came to the scene. This happened in the dorm West AJ.

He went to a classroom a while later and appears to have targeted a particular classroom. I don't know what the motive is.

Here is some something that I found on another website about the classroom shooting. I think it is a good source, but I don't know for sure. I don't know if all of this information is accurate.

What a shame. My heart goes out to the victims, their families and their friends.

Erin Sheehan was one of four people able to walk out of her 9:05 German class in room 207 Norris Hall.

"It's a small class, about 25 people," she said. "And I would say no more than 2 people didn't show up, were absent. And of those of us that were in there today, only four of us walked out of that room, but two of us had been injured during the shooting," Sheehan said.

"It seemed so strange," Sheehan said. "Because he peaked in twice, earlier in the lesson, like he was looking for someone, somebody, before he started shooting. But then we all heard something like drilling in the walls, and someone thought they sounded like bullets. That's when we blockaded the door to stop anyone from coming in."

"He was just a normal looking kid, Asian, but he had on a Boy Scout type outfit. He wore a tan button up vest, and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something."

"I saw bullets hit people's body," Sheehan said. "There was blood everywhere. People in the class were passed out, I don't know maybe from shock from the pain. But I was one of only four that made it out of that classroom. The rest were dead or injured." She described.

According to Virginia Tech police chief Wendell Flinchum, preliminary reports have stated that the doors of Norris Hall were chained. The shooter killed himself within Norris Hall and bodies were found throughout the building. No additional persons are in custody.

Re: 21 students killed at VA Tech

There are a number of people here at WVU that are either from that area or know people there, so it's been on our minds since the news broke earlier this week. Pretty scary what some people are capable of doing in this world. It's also pretty scary, though, how much we as a nation seem capable of ignoring, not only in terms of the signs of potential problems leading up to this specific situation but the number of other global situations in the world that deserve attention.

Re: 21 students killed at VA Tech

APRIL 19--Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho was judged "mentally ill" and a possible "danger to self or others," according to a court order that led to a brief hospitalization in late 2005. An evaluation of Cho was performed in December 2005 after campus police took him to a psychiatric facility when a pair of female students complained that he was stalking and harassing them. According to District Court records, copies of which you'll find below, psychiatrist Roy Crouse found Cho's affect "flat" and his mood "depressed." But Cho, Crouse added, denied suicidal thoughts and did not "acknowledge symptoms of a thought disorder. His insight and judgment are normal." As a result of Crouse's exam, Judge Paul Barnett concluded that Cho "presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness," but that an involuntary hospitalization was deemed "unsuitable." Instead, Barnett recommended that outpatient treatment was warranted. It was during this period that Cho, an English major, was becoming a concern to professors as a result of his bizarre and violent writings, one of which, a one-act play called "Richard McBeef," can be found here.

Re: 21 students killed at VA Tech

Personally I think he was using the whole 'rich kids' speech as closure an excuse if you will for the events he knew he was about to commit. He goes on about 'have you ever had your throat slit from ear to ear etc... etc..' and he was using that as an excuse.

I think in his mind though he was a mess, he had no idea what he was doing but he couldn't stop, he was basically a mad man. The whole speech IMO was nothing more than closure, he wanted to feel he was doing the right thing killing all those people, yet in reality he had no clue in his mind what was going on.

He goes on about rich kids, I mean seriously all he had to do was take one look at the people around him at VT and he would have no doubt seen kids in far worse situations than himself, but they simply took it on the chin and continued on with life, he instead went on a killing spree.